Awakened by a Demoness (16 page)

“I mean it. I don’t love you.” She slowly moved backwards as he advanced on her, a formidable male in the darkness, his face filled with determination that tore at her defences, made her want to surrender to him and scream that she loved him and she was doing this for him.

It was for the best.

She would find Julianna and drag her to Hell, and as soon as she was free of the Devil, she would run and wouldn’t look back.

Rey’s eyes narrowed on her and he gritted out, “I love you.”

She shook her head and held her hands up when he kept stalking towards her, his expression only growing more determined.

More handsome.

By the Devil, he had to stop doing that, stop looking at her in ways no other male ever had. As if he would die without her.

She had never felt like this either. She could feel her heart breaking in her chest as she kept denying him and everything she wanted to do, forcing herself to push him away.

“I don’t love you.” Cold crept in as she said those words, throwing them at him like barbs, wanting him gone but fearing it at the same time, already mourning the loss of him in her life.

“You do,” he snapped and quickened his pace.

By the Devil, she did, and that was the reason she was doing this.

She didn’t want to hurt him, but the pain in his eyes said she already had, so a little more wasn’t going to do much harm, even when she would hate herself for using it against him.

If she was going to hurt him this way, she might as well do it with the truth, even when he wouldn’t be able to understand her words.

She spoke in the demon tongue. “I do love you.”

Rey slapped his hands over his ears, threw his head back and roared at the starry sky as he fell to his knees.

Regret shot through her and she took a step towards him as he fought the pain she had caused him, filled with a need to soothe him and apologise, to tell him in English that she truly did love him.

She forced herself to turn away from him instead, intending to teleport back to Hell to get away from him and then return for the female half-breed.

A very muscular chest blocked her view of the country house.

Dread pooled in her stomach.

She looked up into the eyes of a familiar demon.

The guard from outside the Devil’s fortress, and he wasn’t alone. Another equally massive male demon stood beside him, cold eyes fixed on Rey.

Her heart leaped into her throat and she turned back to face him, reached for him as the familiar male grabbed her shoulders.

Darkness swallowed her, but in the split-second before the portal to Hell opened and the demon dragged her to her doom, she saw Rey.

Saw the white-blue arcs of electricity striking around him as he staggered onto his feet.

Saw the determination in his golden eyes as his white wings burst from his back, white armour covered him from neck to toe, and his sword appeared in his hand.

And she knew that he was going to keep the vow he had made.

He was going to protect her.

He was going to stay by her side.

He was going to rush in where even angels feared to tread.

Not her one.

He was going to follow her to Hell.

She knew that in her heart, knew it in her soul.

And knew in that instant why she loved him.

Her crazy angel had some balls.

Rey wasn’t sure where they would take Asteria, but the image of her in that moment when that damned demon had placed his meaty paws on her and she had reached for him was branded on his mind, her fear burned on his soul, and he was going to do all in his power to rescue her.

The thought of losing her tore him apart, pushing at his control and driving him mad with a need to reach her.

He willed the teleport and blasted through the bridge between the fae town and Hell. Lightning struck around him, white-blue bolts snapping across the black ground as he landed in unfamiliar territory. He rose onto his feet and an unsettling sensation immediately swept through him. He could feel his power leaking from him, drained by the darkness of the realm, affected by it.

More so than he had considered.

The last few arcs of light that lashed at the black ground were crimson, matching the flames that licked along his white blade.

He looked down at it and grimaced as a sharp rush of tingles bolted down his spine, a command to return to the mortal realm.

Rey gritted his teeth and ignored it as he scoured the land, trying to get the lay of it and figure out where they might have taken Asteria.

Everything looked the same, bleak and grim, as if a volcano had spewed lava across the entire land, covering it in a uniform layer of basalt.

He spread his white wings, closed his eyes and focused, calling his Echelon gift. When it triggered, the mark burning hot against his right inside wrist, he harnessed it to locate the strongest source of demonic power. He charted the lands around him in a sweeping circle, pinpointing small fluctuations of dark power all around him, and then stilled when he hit a massive outpouring.

The Devil had to be in that direction, and that meant Asteria was there too.

His eyes flicked open and settled on that point in the distance. A ridge of mountains blocked his view. He beat his wings and kicked off, and grimaced again as they ached. He hadn’t anticipated that the drain on his powers would affect even his wings. Damn, even his sword felt heavier in his hand.

He kept low, afraid that if he dared to fly too high and his wings gave out that he would end up injured. He was already weak, and was steadily growing weaker, the darkness slowly draining all of his strength. If he injured himself, well, it didn’t bear thinking about. He wasn’t sure he would have the strength to save Asteria.

He wasn’t sure that he had it now.

The black mountains were rough and jagged beneath him as he followed them up, remaining only a few feet from the ground. He definitely didn’t want to fall on those rocks. An injury like that would be game over for him. He could sense demons everywhere and knew they could probably sense him. If he was injured to the extent he couldn’t fly, it would be a matter of minutes before the demons located him.

And dealt with him.

He reached the peak of the mountain and started down the other side, but when his eyes lit on the towering black fortress ahead of him, his descent slowed, wariness settling over him. He landed halfway down the mountain and surveyed the huge bastion, surrounded by seven circular courtyards set in a concentric pattern. All but the one where the castle stood contained smaller buildings, and even outside the walls in the valley there were settlements.

And where there were buildings, there were demons.

There had to be hundreds of them. Thousands.

He watched them moving around each courtyard, scouring them for Asteria.

All the instincts that said to form a plan of attack before moving any closer to the citadel were overthrown when he spotted Asteria in the courtyard of the fortress.

The two burly demon males dragged her between them, pulling her towards the entrance where golden light spilled from the castle.

Rey kicked off, beat his wings as hard as he could manage and shot towards her.

When he reached the wall of the courtyard surrounding the castle, she spotted him and her eyes went wide. She was still for a moment and then she started struggling, fighting the demons’ holds on her. The two males looked down at her and then slowly turned towards him.

They weren’t alone.

There were at least a dozen male demons in the courtyard, all of them armed and watching him.

He supposed it wasn’t every day that an angel had the stupidity to wander into their territory.

He had to be here though. He couldn’t let anything happen to Asteria.

He loved her, and no matter what she had told him, he knew she loved him too.

She had said those things to him to drive him away in some noble attempt to spare him, and he loved her all the more for that, but nothing she could have said would have stopped him from following her right into the heart of Hell. He would follow her anywhere, wouldn’t stop pursuing her until she gave into him and gave him what he needed from her.

Her heart.

Her love.

He landed without staggering too much, somehow managed to remain upright despite his legs wanting to give out, and readied his blade.

The usual surge in power and strength didn’t come.

If anything, he felt weaker as the sword drained him, using his power to fuel its light in this dark realm.

Asteria lashed out with her legs and managed to pierce the demon holding her right arm with her heel, stabbing it deep into the unprotected back of his right knee.

He grabbed her by the nape of her neck with his left hand, dragged her before him and struck her hard with his right fist, sending her head snapping to the right.

“Leave her alone,” Rey barked and ran at the bastard.

The big demon male slowly looked his way, eyed him as if he was a mere inconvenience rather than a potential threat, and tossed Asteria onto the black ground, sending her tumbling across the polished flagstones.

Rey swept his sword up in a fast arc, and a huge broadsword appeared in the demon’s right hand. His blade struck the broadsword and vibrations rang along its length, numbing his hands. He gritted his teeth and pushed on, fury rolling through him, driving him to cut the male down. He went to strike again, but the demon blocked with the metal vambrace that protected his forearm and shoved forwards, knocking Rey’s sword aside.

Leaving him wide open.

Stars exploded across his eyes as the demon’s left fist slammed into his stomach, lifting him off the ground and denting his armour. He landed hard metres from the brute, his wings twisted painfully beneath him and lungs burning as he tried to breathe. The damaged armour pressed down on his ribs and stomach, squeezing his insides.

Rey grunted and ripped at it, tore the metal plates away and breathed a sigh of relief when the pressure subsided.

He went to get back onto his feet.

The demon helped him by grabbing him by the front of his throat and hauling him off the ground. The world flew past him in a blur of black and orange and pain splintered across his back, fierce white-hot agony that stole his breath again as he struck a wall. He slumped onto the ground, shook his head to clear it, but didn’t have a chance to get his bearings.

Another demon pulled him onto his feet, grinned at him as his black horns flared forwards and black eyes looked into his, their golden pupils thin slits in their centres.

The male spoke in the demonic tongue and Rey couldn’t bite back the bellow that tore from his throat as those words pierced his mind, driving flaming needles into his skull. He dropped his blade and rushed to cover his ears, but his hands refused to lift, his muscles trembling beneath his skin.

He hung from the demon’s meaty hand, vision wavering as he fought the agony rolling through him.

Was this really how it was going to end?

He had wanted to save Asteria.

He looked across at her, sought her but she was no longer where she had been on the flagstones.

A sharp war cry reached his buzzing ears and he couldn’t breathe as his eyes darted to the source of it.

Asteria fought just metres from him, a majestic and formidable female in her full armour, her black leathery wings out and her broadsword hacking at the males blocking her path to him.

The demon holding him tossed him into the wall, a mere flick of his wrist but he still hit it with the force of a wrecking ball, leaving an impact crater in the smooth black stone. Pain splintered through him again, the taste of blood filling his mouth as he dropped to the ground.

He lay there, dazed and lost, the sound of battle ringing in his ears. A battle he needed to be part of, to get himself up off the floor and hurl himself into, to protect her. She was fighting alone.

Fighting for him.

He opened his bleary eyes and sought her. She was red in his vision, viewed through a veil of blood that suited her as she fought like a warrior, taking on three male demons at once. He willed his body to move, somehow mustered the strength to bring his hands up beside his shoulders and press them into the warm stone.

His head ached, his entire body throbbing as he slowly pushed onto his knees. His mind twirled, sending the world around him spinning for a moment.

When his vision came back, Asteria was no longer fighting.

His heart hitched at the sight of her, fury so strong it robbed him of his breath and burned in his soul blazing through him as the demon who had teleported her to Hell held her in a headlock. She clawed at the male’s forearm, desperately kicking out with her legs as she tried to break free, her eyes growing enormous as the fear he could feel in her took hold of her.

She blinked, her movements weakening as she struggled for air, her wings sagging at her sides.

No.

Rey called his blade to his hand and lumbered onto his feet, locked his knees when his legs threatened to give out and send him crashing back onto the black ground.

She wasn’t going to die.

He wouldn’t lose her.

Not when he had only just found her.

His mate.

His love.

He was too weak in this realm, far weaker than he had anticipated. He couldn’t save her as he was, and he had to save her because she was everything to him. Everything. He raised his blade and stared into her eyes as she looked back at him. He saw the moment she realised what he intended to do because her eyes widened and her cheeks paled, and she slowly shook her head.

He didn’t hesitate.

He stretched his wings wide and roared as he brought his sword down on the left one. That roar became a strangled cry as the blade struck, cleaving deep into the muscle and bone, and blood sprayed across his shoulders and face. He gritted his teeth and hacked at it, severing muscle and tendon, shattering the thick bone. His stomach turned, bile blazing up his throat, as he took hold of the wing and yanked, felt the flesh and tendons snapping.